Anatomy of a Shouldless Day

On Friday I used PTO to have what I call a ‘shouldless day.’ I learned about this concept on the podcast Death, Sex and Money. It’s a day where you only do things you want to do and nothing you should do. So much of our lives are ruled by things we should do. So specifying that I won’t do any shoulds allows me to use the day as I would like with no guilt. So here’s how I spent it!

- I got the kids up and helped get Taco out the door with dad for daycare and Paul on the bus. 

- I messaged my colleagues to tell them I am actually going to try to take the day off and not read/respond to emails. I haven’t had a real day off like this in a very very long time. Even in Canada I checked email at the end of the day. I needed a FULL break from work on this day off. 

- I did a full body Caroline Girvan Epic Heat workout. I haven’t done one of her workouts in over a month thanks to the awful cough/viral illness I was fighting for most of October. It feels so good to be back to working out! 

- I also set up our fake tree. It’s tree decorating day and I promised Paul I would wait until he is home from school to put the ornaments on. Yes it is early to put our tree up but we started doing it in 2020 when we needed some extra light in our lives. I host my college girlfriends and their kids for a cookie decorating party the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend each year so it’s nice to have the tree up well ahead of that. 

- I got a deep tissue massage and think of Jenny since she is a massage therapist. As the masseuse works out the ridiculous number of knots in my upper back, I think of how stressful this year has been at work. I carry my stress in my upper back/shoulder so it’s not wonder she’s working out lots of knots. 

- After the massage, I treated myself to lunch at a Mexican place next to the spa. Tacos, chips, salsa and a sav blanc! And I sit in silence and eat which is golden after a week of So. Much. Talking.

- I relax for a bit before Paul gets off the bus around 2:45. He put all the kid-friendly ornaments on the tree. 

And that brought my shouldless day to a close. It turns out Fridays aren’t the best day for this kind of thing since Paul doesn’t have after care on Friday. But I still had about 6.5 hours to do as I pleased. It just went way too fast! But I planned 2 days off in mid-December so have more me time to look forward to. Those days will also be used for final holiday prep but at least I have a couple of days where I won’t be juggling work and holiday prep.

Have you taken days off that are to be spent as you please?